Worth Melting For
by lrhaboggle
Summary: When Glinda asks why Elphaba insists on just dying at the hands of the Witch Hunters instead of trying to escape, Elphaba offers up a very philosophical reply that leaves Glinda with a lot to think about after Elphaba has gone.


"You must go!" Elphaba commanded Glinda, her dark eyes nearly wild as the sound of the Witch-Hunters' approach grew louder.

"No!" Glinda protested desperately, clinging to her green-skinned best friend. "Why can't you sneak away too? With me? Why do you have to stay here and insist upon dying like some kind of stupid martyr?! Run away with _me_ now! While you still can! Why stay here?"

"Because I hurt everybody I love. I will _not_ allow you to follow in that path," the so-called Wicked Witch of the West snapped in determination.

"But why me? I've been so horrid to you!" Glinda cried regretfully. The look of guilt was so clear that, just for a moment, Elphaba softened.

"Maybe you were once," she allowed. "But not anymore. After everything that has ever happened to me, and to us, you're the only friend I've ever had..." Elphaba trailed off then, squeezing Glinda's hand as a nostalgic light entered her eyes.

"But Elphie, they know your weakness!" Glinda pleaded, trying to shake Elphaba from her reveries. "They know you'll melt when you come into contact with water! It's not like you're just fighting a bunch of rag-tag baffoons! They know how to defeat you!"

Glinda continued to plead with Elphaba, begging her to take her chance and go, but Elphaba was determined to stay behind.

"Oh, Glinda, my dear sweet Glinda, don't you know? Some people are just worth melting for," she murmured, then before Glinda could speak again, Elphaba kissed her, sweet and deep.

Then, later, once Glinda had gone and while Elphaba was slowly melting away into nothingness, she thought about that very last kiss and what she had said to Glinda just before she gave it. It was a very spur-of-the-moment quote and was honestly a little silly when one thought about it, but Elphaba was beginning to realize just how true it was. The world was full of evil, suffering and wickedness, as Elphaba well knew, but there was still some goodness out there. It might not have been much, but it did exist, and it was indeed very worth melting for. And Elphaba wasn't just thinking about Glinda anymore either. She was thinking about all the other little bits and pieces of goodness, scattered around all the wickedness. She thought about Fiyero, Boq, Dr. Dillamond, even Nessa. All though each of them in their turn had caused Elphaba great pain, all of them had brought her so much joy as well. And even her cause with the Animals, though a very lost one even from the start, had been good. So too had the dream behind the Animal rights movement, the dream that strove for a world rich with peace, equality, freedom and love. It had been, though idealistic and implausible, a dream worth fighting for. Worth melting for.

ooo

As Glinda overlooked her new kingdom, she felt her heart sink. There was just so much to do! There were excuses to give for the Wizard's sudden disappearance, truths to reveal about Madam Morrible, laws she had to undo and replace, Animals she had to rescue, dissenters she had to dissuade, an economy she had to keep steady, people she needed to guard and guide. The list was endless! And as of right now? She was doing it all on her own. She, an unexperienced puppet, was running an entire country (which was currently in the middle of a massive political crisis, by the way), all by herself. Her allies were few and far between, as was her experience with actually having any real power, aside from a pretty face.

Oh, this was hopeless! She would never get it done! It really was in moments like these when Glinda couldn't help but wonder if it would just be better to let Oz succumb to its own sins. If it wouldn't be better just to let everyone die off. This whole "save the world" shtick was really pretty much impossible and probably not even that noble of a goal because of how disgraceful and pathetic the people she was trying to save were...

Right in the middle of Glinda's lamentation, a warm summer breeze ruffled her golden curls. Normally, something like that wouldn't have even caught her attention. Tonight, however, it did, because the whole entire rest of the preceding evening had been totally windless. This sudden gust had no reason to exist at all. What's more, Glinda was pretty sure that the mysterious gust of wind had come from a western direction...

"Look, I know you want me to do all you couldn't do, but do you really think that I actually can?" Glinda demanded helplessly as she turned her face towards that breeze. "Do you really think I, one stupid and lonely girl, can fix all of Oz? Even if I had an army at my back, it would still be next to hopeless! And is it even worth it? I mean, have you even looked at this place, Elphie? It is a mess! There is not one good thing left about this country. Is saving it really worth it? What in Oz did you see in this dump that was so worth saving and fixing?"

Another gentle breeze swept on by, but this time, Glinda was sure she thought she'd heard Elphaba's voice sweeping across it as well.

"Some people are worth melting for," the breeze said, and Glinda suddenly felt ashamed of herself. It really wasn't fair of her to be so harsh. Sure, Oz had a lot of things it needed to fix, but everyone was a bit of a fixer-upper. It wasn't fair to start drawing lines as to who could be saved and who could not. Not when everyone had sins and secrets on their backs. Besides, wasn't Glinda the same? Hadn't she been just like that ignorant and arrogant crowd below? But then she changed! So why not the rest of them? Why was Glinda so willing to give up on faceless strangers who were only in need of a little bit of love? And Glinda slowly began to see what Elphaba had already seen.

Maybe her subjects _were_ worth dying for. Maybe it was only a misplaced ego that somehow convinced her that she was better than they were, or that they were less save-able. Once again, Oz might've been a mess, but so was she. What defined who deserved help and who didn't? And why not just help anyone anyway? If it was a lost cause, she as might as well go down fighting and trying to fix the crumbling world she called home. Why not? If it was all going to end anyway, let her at least have something good to say when it did!

Besides, maybe "dying" in this sense wasn't literal. Maybe it was more about sacrificing personal pleasure and preference for the benefit of the world. She could sacrifice herself day by day, sacrifice her time and talent, to try and help fix Oz. There was no guarantee that it would work, but until she tried, she'd never know. But even if it did fail in the end, maybe her efforts would still be worth something. Maybe, in time, she could become someone worth melting for too. And if not, she was already working in the name of someone who definitely was, even if she didn't know.

"Don't worry, Elphie, I won't let you down," Glinda vowed. "Because you were, no, _are_ somebody worth melting for. If this is really what you want me to do with my life, then I will. Then maybe someday, I will be worth melting for too."

 **AN: Obviously based off Olaf's line in Frozen, but very applicable to Wicked and Gelphie (and, in retrospect, the world as a whole right now, if you still believe humanity is worth saving). I wrote this in freshman year of high school so I had written this before 2016 and everything that happened after, but it has aged quite well, hasn't it? So, if you still do believe in humanity, then I hope this fic helped to raise your spirits even more. I'm still working on raising mine.**


End file.
